Italian Medieval and Renaissance Paintings and Sculptures

On View: West Building, Main Floor

Gallery number

367 artworks on view.

A woman with pale skin holds a baby in the crook of her left arm, on our right, against a gold background in this vertical, arched wooden panel. The woman is shown from the waist up with her body angled slightly to our right. She wears a dark blue mantle that drapes over her head and shoulders, and across her body. The garment has a gold border and celery-green lining where it turns over at her wrists and chest. There is a gold starburst-like symbol on her right shoulder, our left, and she holds a stylized rose with her right hand. The baby is nude except for a translucent white cloth, also edged with a gold border, wrapped around his waist and legs. His face and body look more like a small man than a baby, but there are baby-like rolls at his wrists. He has blond wavy hair. He grips the woman's forefinger on the hand that holds his body, and he reaches for the rose she holds with his other hand. The gold background is punched to create halos around their heads and decorative bands along the inner edge of the curving, arched top.

Madonna and Child

Giotto

c. 1310/1315

Tempera on poplar panel Accession ID 1939.1.256

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M1

Dozens of people line up around a shed-like structure and around stone ruins to kneel before a woman and baby at the lower center of this circular painting. All the people have pale skin. The crowd gathers along a pathway that winds around a rocky mountain at the top middle of the composition. Most of the people are on foot but a few ride horses or camels. The line of people curves around and through an arched opening in a stone ruin to our left. Sitting at the center of the painting, behind the woman and baby, Mary and Jesus, the structure is open at the front and has a triangular pitched roof. Some of the people, including the three closest to Mary and Jesus, wear elegant, gold-trimmed clothing. Others wear simple tunics, and several people standing along the ruins in the middle distance wear only white loincloths. Ages of the people range from young and cleanshaven to older and bearded. Their costumes are mostly pale yellow, coral orange, crimson red, shell pink, or sky blue. Some people raise their heads and hands while others hold hands to their chests and close their eyes. Mary wears a pale blue robe over a blush-pink dress. Jesus is nude and an older man standing nearby wears an apricot-colored robe over a blue tunic. The older man, Mary, and Jesus have gold halos. A peacock and two other birds stand on the roof of the manger, which shelters an ox, ass, and horses.

The Adoration of the Magi

Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi

c. 1440/1460

Tempera on poplar panel Accession ID 1952.2.2

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M4

A man stands on a rocky, tan-colored outcropping and gestures to two men in a rowboat, all against a gold background in this square painting. The men’s pale skin is tinged with gray but they have rosy cheeks, and all three have beards. The outcropping rises steeply up along the left edge of the panel. The man who stands on it has long brown hair, a straight nose, and a small mouth. A halo is incised with geometric designs around his head against the gold background. He wears a crimson-red robe under a sea-blue mantle, both of which are edged with a line of gold. He holds up his blue robe with his left hand, farther from us, and holds out his other hand, palm up, to the other men. Those men stand in a wooden rowboat and hold a net heavy with fish over the side. Both of these men have ash-blond hair. The man to our left in the boat wears a sky-blue tunic and holds up one hand to his chest as he faces our left, his other hand holding a line of the net. The second man, to our right, has a longer beard and wears a brick-red robe. He holds the net with both hands, and looks up and to our left. The boat floats on a copper-green sea with several fish swimming in its undulating current. The fish are painted with dark green outlines. Closer inspection reveals two fish with gaping mouths facing us head on.

The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew

Duccio di Buoninsegna

1308-1311

Tempera on panel Accession ID 1939.1.141

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M1

The head, shoulders, and chest of a man wearing a deep rose-red garment fills this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled slightly to our left, and he looks directly at us from the corners of his eyes. His brown hair falls across his forehead, sweeps down over his ears, and curls gently at the nape of his neck. His eyebrows arch over brown eyes, and he has a long, angular nose. His upper lip is full, and his mouth is closed. He has high cheekbones and a cleft in his chin. The high collar is a black band over the voluminous red garment, which falls in pleats or folds down his chest. His right hand, on our left, lifts to clutch the fabric near his chest, in the lower left corner of the painting, and he wears a gold ring on his pinky finger. The background behind the man fades from dark aquamarine blue across the top to pale arctic blue at his shoulders, which span the width of the composition.

Portrait of a Man

Andrea del Castagno

c. 1450

Tempera on panel Accession ID 1937.1.17

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M6

About three dozen people gather in a grassy field to either side of a crumbling structure to kneel and pray before a woman and baby in the center of this horizontal painting. The woman, Mary, and baby, Jesus, have smooth, pale skin while the others have light or tanned skin. The structure has sand-colored stone pillars, a wooden triangular, pitched roof, and a straw floor. Mary, who has an elongated torso, sits facing us with her knees apart. She wears an azure-blue robe over a rose-pink dress. A shell-pink veil covers her head and body. Jesus sits on her left knee, his pudgy body angled to our left. He is nude except for a transparent cloth wrapped over one shoulder and the opposite hip. Mary’s left hand braces his torso. On Mary’s right, our left, Joseph, an older man, stands facing us. He clasps his hands at his chest and leans on a long stick. He has wrinkled skin, long, gray curly hair, and a full beard. Both Mary and Joseph tilt their heads to their right, our left, as they look down at Jesus. Joseph wears a golden yellow robe over a blue tunic. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus have faint gold halos. Behind them, a brown cow and gray donkey rest on the straw. People closest to Mary and Jesus kneel and bow their heads while the people to the left and right sides mostly stand. Three men kneeling closest to Mary and Jesus offer gifts, including a bronze vessel and a gold jar. One man has long dark brown hair and a beard, and wears a gold crown. Another man is bald with long gray hair and beard, while the third is cleanshaven with shoulder-length brown hair. These men wear robes in powder blue, carnation pink, or celery green with delicate silver and gold embelishments. Others in the crowd range in age from young and cleanshaven to older and bearded. They wear robes and tunics in shades of raspberry pink, butterscotch yellow, lapis blue, plum purple, or forest green. Several horses, their coats white or cinnamon brown, stand among the crowd, a few with riders. To our right, one horse rears its head and two others stand facing each other. Beyond the crowd, grassy green meadows and hills dotted with trees lead back to the horizon. A pale blue sky fills the top third of the composition.

The Adoration of the Magi

Sandro Botticelli

c. 1478/1482

Tempera and oil on poplar panel Accession ID 1937.1.22

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M7

A man stands, leaning on a staff used like a crutch, in a deep, rocky landscape in this round-topped vertical painting. The cleanshaven man has tanned skin and sparse gray hair. He is nude aside from a slate-gray cloth that wraps around his hips. The hand not bracing the crutch is held in a loose fist at his chest. A few plants grow and bloom along the bottom of the panel. The dirt path on which the man stands winds through low, grass-covered mounds to a cave opening at the base of a tall, steep cliff face. A lion stands on the path between the man and the cave. An owl perches in the bare, spike-like branches of a spindly tree growing to our right of the man.

The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome, and Saint Mary Magdalene [left panel]

Pietro Perugino

c. 1482/1485

Oil on panel transferred to canvas Accession ID 1937.1.27.a

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M20

A man hangs from a wooden cross at the top center of this vertical painting, with a woman standing at the foot of the cross to our left and a man to our right, all in front of a deep landscape with mountains along a river. All the people have light skin. The feet of the man on the cross, Jesus, line up with the tops of the heads of the people standing below. Jesus hangs by a nail driven through each palm, and his overlapping feet are nailed into a short platform that angles downward. He has shoulder-length brown hair and a short brown beard. His head tips forward, and his eyes are downcast or closed. He has a straight nose, high cheekbones, and his lips are closed. Blood trickles down his forehead from a ring of thorns around his head, from the nails in his hands and feet, and from a short gash over his right ribs, on our left. A white loincloth is wrapped around his hips, and the end of it flutters as if in a breeze to our left. The man’s body is lean but muscular. A slip of paper with the letters “INRI” has been affixed to a small panel on the cross above Jesus’s head. Below and to our left of the cross, a woman stands with her head bowed, looking down with her hands clasped in prayer. Her hair is covered with a tan-colored veil and she wears a gold-edged, navy-blue robe that covers her head and body. She and the cleanshaven, blond man standing to our right of the cross both have bare feet. The man looks up at the cross with his lips parted. His fingers are intertwined and then flipped, palms-down, with his arms straight. His raspberry pink-robe falls over one shoulder and around his hips, over a topaz-blue, ankle-length tunic. The dirt-packed ground on which they stand is lined along the bottom edge of the panel with plants and flowers. The golden-brown land dips beyond the people, leading down to a river that winds into the distance. A castle-like structure perches on cliff-like outcroppings high along the left edge of the painting, and buildings at the foot of that outcropping line the river. Two people walk and one person fishes off a bridge near the town. A few boats, one with full sails unfurled and another possibly with oars out to row, float in the river beyond, which is flanked in the deep distance by mountains painted blue in the haze. The horizon comes about halfway up the composition, crossing the painting just beneath Jesus’s feet. The sky above deepens from pale yellow along the horizon to robin’s egg blue where a few wispy clouds create streaks along the top edge.

The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome, and Saint Mary Magdalene [middle panel]

Pietro Perugino

c. 1482/1485

Oil on panel transferred to canvas Accession ID 1937.1.27.b

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M20

The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome, and Saint Mary Magdalene

Pietro Perugino

c. 1482/1485

Oil on panel transferred to canvas Accession ID 1937.1.27.a-c

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M20

A young woman with pale skin and flushed cheeks stands in a landscape looking to our upper left in this round-topped vertical painting. Her body faces us in the center of the scene. Her fingers are interlaced at her waist, and her head tips slightly to our left. Honey-brown hair cascades over her shoulders, and her hazel eyes roll up under thin brows. She has a short nose and a small, pale pink mouth. A translucent scarf is tied around the full-length, pine-green mantle that drapes across her shoulders and wraps around the V-neck of her rose-red robe. A wine-red inset fills the neckline, and a matching belt is tied around her waist. She stands barefoot on the dirt ground, which is scattered with pebbles. Plants grow and bloom, including a blue iris, in shallow water along the bottom edge of the composition. A lidded pitcher with a narrow neck and scrolling handles sits on a flat rock next to her right knee. Taller, peanut-brown rock formations pile up beyond her under a powder-blue sky. Tawny-brown and sage-green trees, leafy plants, and shrubs sprout among the rocks. Beyond the woman is an open gate in a wooden fence built into one of the rock formations to our right, and sage-green hills dotted with moss-green trees roll out along the left side of the painting.

The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome, and Saint Mary Magdalene [right panel]

Pietro Perugino

c. 1482/1485

Oil on panel transferred to canvas Accession ID 1937.1.27.c

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M20

An older man with a tanned skin and a white beard is shown from the waist up against a dark brown background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our right but he turns his head to look to our left. His eyes are shadowed under heavy brows. He has a long, hooked nose, high cheekbones, and the corners of his mouth turn slightly down. His brick-red cap, which is edged with gold, is an unusual shape. It sits low over his forehead and then rises at the back almost like a gourd. The cap sits over a white cloth that comes to points over his ears, and a cord hangs from each point to his shoulders. He wears a voluminous, deep rose-pink garment beneath a billowing, heavy gold robe. The rose-colored garment is streaked with cream-white to suggest a sheen, and it is belted around his waist. The gold, brocade-patterned robe is buttoned near the high collar but then flares open over his chest. The turned-back edge along our left is painted white, perhaps to suggest fur lining. Large, round, gold buttons the size of ping pong balls line the left edge of the robe opening. He wears a gold ring on his right hand, on our left, and he clutches the fabric of the robe near his waist with that hand.

Doge Andrea Gritti

Titian

c. 1546/1550

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1961.9.45

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M23

A winged angel with arms crossed kneels across from a young woman sitting and holding a book, both under an archway in a paneled room in this vertical painting. They both have pale, yellow-toned skin, blond hair, and flat, gold halos. They also have golden brown eyes, long, straight noses, smooth cheeks, and their pale, pink lips are closed. To our right, the woman sits in a throne-like chair with her body facing our left. Her head tilts down, and she looks toward the angel under lowered lids. Her hair is pulled back under the neck of the lapis-blue cloak she wears over a crimson-red dress. The dress and cloak are trimmed with gold, and a there is a gold starburst on the cloak over her left shoulder, closer to us. She holds her other hand up near that shoulder with her fingertips brushing her chest. With her other hand, she holds open the pages of a small book in her lap, so her fingers overlap some of the words. The entire Latin inscription would read, “virgo concipiet et pariet filium et vocabitur nomen eius emmanuel butirum et mel come dit ut fiat reprobare.” A slender, bone-white column separates her from the angel across from her, along the left edge of the painting. The angel has curly, shoulder-length hair and wears a robe with a gold, floral pattern against a burgundy-red background. Long, golden wings emerge from the shoulder blades and extend off the side of the composition. An open archway just beyond the angel is filled with streaks of flax yellow and burnt orange, possibly representing flames. Some of the walls in the room around the pair are pale olive green and other areas are darker spruce green. There are bands of coral-pink molding and inset panels of patterned mosaics. The flat ceiling of the space immediately over the pair is decorated with checkerboard panels in navy blue, hunter green, brown, and brick red. Gold lines create a ray coming from the ceiling toward the woman. At the back of the space, beyond the column separating the woman and angel, the room extends into an alcove with an arched hallway painted with gold stars against a midnight-blue background. Double doors open at the back of the alcove onto a room with a pale-yellow curtain with a mesh-like trim. We see the pair as if through a stone archway that lines the top and sides of the composition. The upper corners are filled with leafy decorations, as if carved into the stone.

The Annunciation

Masolino da Panicale

c. 1423/1424

Tempera (and possibly oil glazes) on panel Accession ID 1937.1.16

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M4

Shown from the chest up, a man with pale, yellow-tinged skin is angled to our right with downcast eyes in this vertical portrait painting. He is cleanshaven with chin-length black hair. There is a deep vertical crease in the center of his forehead between dark brows. His eyes are hazel brown, and he has a long, hooked nose over slightly parted, pale pink lips. He wears a high-necked, red tunic with deep pleats down his chest. The arm closer to us has a fawn-brown sleeve. He is shown behind a narrow ledge where a brown, dove-sized bird with an ivory-white belly sits on a twig in the lower left corner. A window opening behind the man has two wooden shutters. The shutter to the right is closed, and the one to the left is pushed open so a sliver of pale sky is visible.

Giuliano de' Medici

Sandro Botticelli

c. 1478/1480

Tempera on panel Accession ID 1952.5.56

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M7